Like ancient Rome and Constantinople, Seattle is a romantic city of seven hills. Here in Ballard, we’re on the western slope of one of them: Crown Hill. And the house we’re staying in is worthy of any Roman or Byzantine emperor. Simply magnificent.

I mentioned that we’re house-hunting on this trip, but we also hope to get in a little skiing while we’re here, at Whistler in Canada, Mt. Baker (outside of Bellingham) or Crystal Mountain near Mt. Ranier. So, we were thrilled when it snowed on our drive back from Bellingham Saturday, a somewhat uncommon event in Seattle.

Sunday morning, I watched Dale from the front window in the photo, above, go out to pick up the newspaper in the snow:

Here are a couple photos of the grounds around the house before and after the snowfall; here’s the back yard:

And we love this statue in the water on the side of the house, frozen when we arrived.

I never would have guessed that bamboo could thrive this far north. Pretty cool.